Such a method and such an apparatus are known from the publication “Vehicle in the Loop” in the journal “Elektrointegration”, ATZ January 2008, volume 110, pages 2-8. Said publication describes a test and simulation environment for driver assistance systems, in which a real test vehicle, which does not move in the public road traffic but rather in an open space or on a testing site, is combined with a driving simulator. Such a test structure, which is called “Vehicle in the Loop” can be used to safely test how driver assistance functions react to virtual external traffic or other virtual objects in a virtual traffic environment.
For software verification and validation at a system level, a set of stimuli and expected responses of the system are conventionally specified. The stimuli and expected responses are directly derived from corresponding requirements. The scope of these requirements, and therefore also the scope of the test cases, is generally restricted to a finite set of identified applications. The test cases are typically specified by test engineers using software test tools. Such tools may have functions for assisting with test automation and for enhancing the test maturity (version management, issue tracker, graphical test specification etc.).